10 Most Fascinating Train Journeys In India

There is no other journey like the Great Bharatiya Rail Yatra on the planet. Satyajit Ray knew it, Paul Theroux appreciated it, and Wes Anderson is in on it too. “In other countries, a long wait at a train station is a dull thing and tedious, but one has no right to have that feeling in India,” Mark Twain wrote in his travelogue, Following the Equator. “You have the monster crowd of bejewelled natives, the stir, the bustle, the confusion, the shifting splendors of the costumes—dear me, the delight of it, the charm of it are beyond speech!” The romance of train travel in India is legendary, taken to epic proportions by Bollywood. Remember Rajesh Khanna serenading Sharmila Tagore as the Darjeeling toy train snaked its way up the hills? Or Shah Rukh Khan getting jiggy with Malaika Arora atop the Ooty mountain train? It’s difficult to find a symbol which is as practical and mass-friendly as it is romantic. After all, Indian Railways transports almost 2.5 crore travellers every day, and runs almost 11,000 trains on a daily basis. Here, we list 10 of the most fascinating train journeys in India, from heritage to scenic to uber luxury.

- Aparajita Mukherjee

Luxury Trains

MAHARAJA EXPRESS

Rajasthan’s raw charm is captivating, whether you look at it from the POV of a shoe-string budget traveller or through the rosy tints of a luxury seeker. Rajasthan, seen through the Maharaja Express, however, is an experience beyond par. Each carriage on the train comes with a personal butler and is lavishly appointed, with inspirations from royal households. This leviathan in burgundy often feels too big for the many rural stations it crosses and the guests on board get welcomes fit for royalty wherever the train goes, complete with bright garlands and festive bands playing on the platform. Oh, and a red carpet too! This is, of course, all “manufactured” and an extremely curated version of India but, hey, when you are sitting inside the Most Luxurious Train in the World award winner for four years in a row, with amenities and services to match, such paltry thoughts cease to cross the mind. The Maharaja Express includes in its itinerary the Golden Triangle (Delhi-Agra-Jaipur), besides the traveller’s Rajasthan essentials such as Ranthambore, Jodhpur, Bikaner and Udaipur. The modified itineraries also include the diverse attractions of north India such as Khajuraho, Orchha, Fatehpur Sikri and Banaras. The train, like its other luxury counterparts, is mostly tailored for travellers from abroad. Thus, to us, a lot of practices maintained on the train (such as a golden-embroidered liveried butler catering to your every whim and desire, or a welcome with a dance-and-song sequence) might seem excessive, but it’s just the phantasmal version of India popularised by Western movies such as The Darjeeling Limited and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel that travellers come hoping for!

DECCAN ODYSSEY